Sickening Spins

 Sickening Spins
Remembering this past Saturday and my day spent at Idlewild with my family, I thought back to the variety of rides that were available for the visitors. There were nearly a dozen that spin in circles from the Octopus to the milder carosel. I am afraid to ride in them because of an incident that occurred about three years ago. It’s not been so long ago that the memory has had time to wear down and still hangs like an old rag.
My younger daughter Anna Prinkey and I were visiting the park and chose to ride on the Tilt-a-Whirl. These hooded cages were designed to rock back and forth from a fixed pivoted spot on the floor of the amusement ride. The floor would spin around in an undulating motion causing the caged car to rotate one way and then change direction for the next few seconds. It was a ride that I enjoyed until…
The ride started out well. We sat back on the paddeds seats in the hooded car and settled the belly-bar in place. The ride started and for some reason, the car only spun in one direction with an occasional pause in its spin. Around and around it went without a break to drift in the opposite direction. There was no relief with the centrical force throwing us tightly against the back of the car.
Anna thought it was great that the operator allowed the ride to go longer than normal, but it was torture for me. Often if the riders shift their weight, they can change the direction on the spin, not this time. The direction was set and it continued throughout the ride.
There are others like me who have difficulty with spinning amusements and when Idlewild has a non-spin ride that iis down, it limits the enjoyment of the visitor. The last three times I have visited the park (Including the Tilt-a-Whirl fiasco) the Wild Mouse has been out of service. It is the one ride that I look forward to visiting. It was very disappointing.
I was able to enjoy the Log Jammer and the Scooters. The park visitors were scattered and light. We rode the Scooters and would get back in the queue, but there wasn’t a line. The operator was gracious enough to allow us to stay in our cars and have a second go at the bumper car traffic.